Team Fortress (c) Valve Software
Jurassic Park (c) Michael Crichton (RIP), Universal Studios
Meet The Jurassic Beastmaster
At the Mercenary Park, the battlefield was utter chaos for the Blue Team as the Red Team had been dominating the arena for the past four weeks. The announcer's voice echoed throughout the park,
"Alert! Enemy team has breached through your defenses!"
As exemplified by Heavy from the Red Team busting down the makeshift barricade comprised of wooden boxes and several sentries placed in front of him at the entrance of the bridge walkway leading to the Visitor Center. The gun sentries crafted by the Engineer of the Blue Team would have made mincemeat of the giant Russian wielding his huge minigun if it had not been for the Red Medic ubercharging him from behind into his shiny, reddish metallic state of invincibility that made the torrent of bullets bounce off of his skin.
"Burn them all down!" the Red Heavy yelled out his battle cry when his minigun shredded all of the obstacles meant to prevent his Team's advancement onto the Blue Team's stronghold. The Red Pyro joined in on the frontline with his flamethrower spitting flames that burned away the debris.
"Not if I have anything to say about it, you hulking piece of red crap!" Soldier of the Blue Team hollered defiantly as he fired his two rocket launchers at them. Two rockets launched from the muzzles with the first one striking the shielded Red Heavy sans the Red Medic and the Red Pyro and the second projectile striking the Mann Co. building the Red Team was in. The debris happened to fall upon the platform and that was too close for the Red Engineer to take comfort in. Deploying his own robotic sentry that was armed to the teeth with twin miniguns and a missile launcher, he retaliated, programming it to fire everything it had. The sentry unleashed its fury with all of the miniguns rattling furiously out their hail of bullets and the missile launcher firing six missiles at the Blue Demoman, Scout, and Medic rushing out from the Visitor Center.
"Oh, Bloody Mary! Get behind cover!" The Blue Demoman widened his one good eye, seeing the barrage heading their way.
"Schiz!" The Medic swore when he and Demoman ducked at the last minute to cover behind a column of boxes and upside-turned table with the missiles obliterating the very spot they were on moments ago, except for the Scout, who zipped past through barrage.
"Coming through! I'm sick of being on the defense cuz' it's time I lay the smack on that arrogant hardhead!" Blue Scout said as he jumped onto an upturned boat floating in the river where there used to be dry ground between the Visitor Center and the Mann Co., which was flooded during a monsoon days ago. The Scout began shooting at the Red Engineer controlling the sentry with his rapid fire pistol. The shots struck the robotic sentry much to the Engineer's surprise and ire.
"Watch the paint, ya cocky bastard!" The Engineer of the Red Team snarled as his handcrafted turret to aim onto the agile Scout jumping onto the tree debris floating on the river. The crimson sentry turned its weaponry and launched missiles onto the wooden boat the Scout was standing on.
"That's the least of your worries when I'm going to paint you red all over with your own!" Scout retorted as he jumped off before the missiles struck the boat with the explosion causing water and wood splinters to fly over. He was about to fire another round before he was bludgeoned in the face mid-air by his fellow Sniper from the Red Team. Unlike him though, this Scout was a young woman with her strawberry blonde hair tied into a long ponytail and sporting a cowgirl hat. She landed onto the platform besides the Engineer with a smug smirk on her face, wielding a spiky bat in her hand that she used to hit her Blue counterpart in the head.
"Damn you, Sherry!" The Blue Scout cursed before he splashed into the murky water of the river. He popped his head out, but his face switched into that of horror when he was pulled under. His screams of agonized pain were heard with a Saltwater Crocodile tearing into his flesh with the youngest Blue team member unable to escape his demise with the reptile performing its death roll. His body and innards were ripped and twisted forcedly in half both by the croc's strong bite force and twisting momentum.
"Scout, no!" Blue Soldier hollered out of shocked horror of what just happened, but his momentary distraction proved to be fatal as Red Heavy took the opportunity to riddle him with holes like Swiss Cheese.
"GAHK!" Blue Soldier was blown back onto the stairs, being hacked into a mangled mess thanks to the unrelenting hail of bullets courtesy of the Red Russian's precious "Sasha". "Screw me...ugh..." Soldier died shortly, lying in a pool of his own blood cascading down the steps.
The Red Pyro destroyed the very boxes the Blue Demoman and Medic were hiding behind, lighting them up into flames and forcing the two out into the open.
The Blue Demoman shouted, "Doc! Ubercharge me!"
"No need to tell me twice!" The Medic already acknowledged with his Medi Gun delivering the Ubercharge to him. Demoman turned blue metallic as he drank a full bottle of whiskey. His one good eye glowed menacingly as he went into full drunken rage, pulling out his grenade launcher. Pressing the trigger, he fired a grenade up into the air that soared in an upward crescent arc before soaring down onto the Red Medic, who heard it soaring down onto him.
"Look out!" The Red Medic shouted, warning the Red Heavy and Red Pyro in the nick of time when they had to forcibly split up to avoid getting blasted by the grenade. They were thrown off with the Red Medic blasted onto one end of the walkway with the other two having to dive in the direction towards the other end where Demoman and now their Heavy was ready to blast them into oblivion.
"Never mess with a Scott when he's loaded with Scotch!" Demoman grinned gleefully as he aimed his Grenade Launcher at the defenseless Red Medic, ready to end the Assault team's lifeline once and for all while the Blue Heavy revved up his minigun to kill off his Red counterpart and the Pyro.
The Red Medic gulped as he quickly pulled out his Syringe Gun as fast as he could, but knowing that the Blue Scottish demolition expert was faster on the trigger than he was, there was the high possibility that he'd die before firing back. Thankfully, the Red Engineer, with his quick thinking, had his sentry fire on the Blue Medic.
"Look out, Doc!" The Blue Heavy got in front of the Blue Medic, taking the brunt of the assault with his chest and face pelted and torn apart by the torrent of bullets. "AAAAHHHHHH!"
The Heavy fell with a ground shaking thud in front of the Medic.
"You dumpkoff!" The Blue Medic yelled before the Red Heavy seized the chance to grapple the Blue Team's doctor and rip apart the energy pack, effectively ending the Ubercharge to the Blue Demoman, much to the Demolition Expert's disbelief before he was shot dead in his good eye by a syringe shot from the Red Medic.
"Hands off of me, you red brute!" The terrified Medic yelled trying to fruitlessly wriggle out of the giant Russian man's meaty hands, not realizing he sealed his own fate when Red Heavy smirked evilly at what he was about to do.
"With pleasure, Heavy will get hands off of ya!" He lifted the doctor with one hand alone and with a mighty throw, threw him over the once-electrified, ruined fence and into the flooded river, "And now you swim with the crocodiles! BWAHAHAHA!"
The Blue Medic screamed to his very last when he landed, splashing headfirst underneath the surface of the murky water where another Saltwater Croc swam up from an underwater bog cave. All came out of from the poor doctor's mouth were muffled screams and bubbles before the crocodile engulfed his upper half in its jaws with blood staining the water red.
From afar within the jungle wilderness, a shadowy figure with a fedora hunting hat watched with his binoculars the Blue Medic splashing into the river only for the water to later turn crimson with his blood as the crocodile crunched him into fish food. The figure didn't revile from it, but instead, reacted with cold serpentine indifference with eyes hidden behind his shades that were more animal than human as they were slit. He heard something big behind him with a wet, guttural growl. Not unnerved by the sound, he acknowledged it, but also emitted his own growl that spoke to the beast he's in charge of that the time has not arrived yet.
Until now...
When his cell phone rang with an encrypted line that only him and him alone knew belonged to his boss. Picking it up, he flipped the cover and answered the call.
"Well, what do you think, sir?"
What he heard from his boss changed his expression from cold, reptile-like indifference to that of a predatory glee akin to that of a crocodile with his distorted mouth in a grin showing his teeth that looked like sharp fangs from a certain angle.
"So they've finally caved like a bunch'a scared Gallimimus." The mysterious man put away his binoculars that had the black text of "InGen" imprinted onto it and got out his Sniper Rifle, "So the operation is a go then?...Good. About bloody time. Operation Sorna is long overdue for this park."
To his upper right and twenty feet above him, a pair of large red bestial eyes illuminated in the darkness of the jungle as they focused on the carnage happening in Mercenary Park with hunger for blood.
Back at the Visitor Center, the Red Heavy was shot in the head by the Blue Sniper while the Red Pyro exploded into many gory pieces when another Blue Demoman wearing a pirate hat and fair-skinned this time with a red beard, chucked a sticky bomb into the nozzle of his flamethrower, which detonated and caused the said outcome.
The Red Engineer was watching the battle unfold with Sherry the Red Scout already jumped onto the bridge to zip zigzag at the Demoman. Red Soldier was behind him with a suspicious look and knife in his hand. Unaware of what's about to happen to him, Engineer would had his life cut short if it weren't for Red Sniper seeing through the deception.
"Oh bloody hell no, ya don't ya Blue wanker!" Sniper shot the false "Soldier" right in the head, whose camouflage dropped revealing himself to be the Blue Spy. The said Spy died on the spot.
"Thanks for saving for my ass, Wesley!" The Red Engineer gave the Okay sign to his colleague.
To which the Sniper simply responded, "Don't mention it." The Aussie went back to shooting at the Blue Engineer on the other side. His shot had hit the mark in destroying one of the sentries. He had to hide behind a box to avoid getting sniped by his Blue counterpart.
"Damnit!" the said Blue Sniper cursed as this was becoming absurd with the odds stacked against him and his team.
Sherry was getting some actual fire cover from the real Red Soldier firing his own rocket launcher at the Blue Demoman #2, and three more Blue mercenaries coming out to assist him. Demoman #2, Blue Heavy #2 with Rambo haircut in more stylized military outfit, Blue Scout #2, and Blue Pyro had to hide behind the boxes to avoid the rocket and heavy gunfire from another Red Heavy. Blue Soldier #2 rushed out from the Visitor Center firing his shotgun at Sherry rushing towards him while she fired her Scattergun as both dodged each other's rounds.
"Don't get too cocky, cowgirl, or you will get a taste of what happens when my shovel meets your skull!" Blue Soldier #2 taunted.
"Not if my bat spikes your stupid helmet along with your head off first, ya old codger!" Sherry confidently sassed back as she zipped up to him and whacked his shotgun away. Only to get pelted in the face in return by his spiked shield on his left forearm that sent her tumbling.
"And you stay outta my way!" He chucked his grenade at his Red counterpart. The blowback of the explosion and returning fire from Blue Demoman #2, Blue Heavy #2, and Blue Pyro forced him to back off to Red Heavy #2 where they all engaged in an intense stalemate on the walkway bridge once more.
"I am going to crack your skull so bad that you'll be needing more than stitches to put your pretty face back together!" Blue Soldier #2 wielded his shovel with his shield ready to teach the punkish brat of the female Red Scout a lesson she would never forget.
Sherry put her gun away, cracking her knuckles as she started to wield her spiked bat to melee the arrogant son of a gun. "I hope you can better back those fighting words. I bashed outlaws tougher than you where I'm from in Arizona!"
"Those punks are nothing compared to the Nazis I fought in Normandy on D-Day! And I was about your age!"
"Hey, I have little to no patience for your war stories, old man! Are we now gonna fight or hear you yap until somebody blasts your freaking jaw off?!"
"I am more than happy to give ya the beating you deserve for disrespecting the uniform! Now let's dance!" Blue Soldier #2 AKA Tough McGee got into his fighting stance.
"Bring it!" Sherry was the first to move as she sprinted to attack him. However, she got shot in the side, causing her to fall in front of a startled McGee as she screamed horribly for a Medic, clutching her bloodied side. The Blue Soldier quickly composed himself as he looked to the Blue Sniper, Dennis Austell, posted on the upper balcony of the Visitor Center overlooking the river.
"Nice shot, Danny!" McGee complimented, thinking it was his colleague that saved his hide. However, the puzzled look on the Sniper's face and what he answered next pretty much shot that down.
"Would have loved to take the credit, but I hate to debunk you, that wasn't me, mate." Dennis said.
"Huh?!" McGee was now confused and the other Blue mercenaries were just as befuddled. That was when they heard heavy footsteps coming from their left. That was also when they saw another Sniper coming from the garage. Unlike any of the Snipers, the outfit he wore was more...animalistic and rugged in its quality. The undershirt noticeably had a lighter green-blue tinge to it that was slightly browned from the mud and dirt he underwent in the wilderness. The logo of "InGen" could be seen on his left shoulder sleeve. While he wore a dark green hood that have some scaly impressions over his head, the vest was made of a scaly hide skinned from a crocodile and so were his gloves that had claws on his knuckles. The boots that nearly go up to his knees were made of waterproof python snakeskin. The black bandana covering his mouth and nose had a row of white sharp teeth more akin to that of a shark or a predatory lizard, which accentuated the animalistic quality to him. His face was covered in nasty scars from once what were gashes inflicted upon him on his left by an animal of sorts.
The cold stare he was giving to both most of the Blue Team and some of the Red Team had them all uneasy.
"Who's that?" the Red Engineer asked.
"Who the hell is this bloody, intruding wanker?" Dennis whispered in a snarl as he tightened his grip on his Sniper Rifle. His guts telling him right away that something was way off about this mercenary that just appeared seemingly out of nowhere.
"Gah! So you're the bastard who shot me...," Sherry said with blood leaking from the corner of her mouth as she struggled to stand up. The smoke coming out from the muzzle of his Sniper Rifle indicated that he was responsible for wounding her.
The InGen Sniper said nothing to her. He only glanced at her before he coldly surveyed what was around him. The air was tense as everyone, even the battle-hardened Heavies, were unable to say anything. They were unnerved with chilling, creeping sensation of dread up their spines, feeling like squirrels probed by a hawk.
"What are you looking at us for without opening your trap?!" The second Blue Demoman, AKA James McConnel, snapped up irritably, already getting impatient.
The InGen Sniper didn't say anything, but just kept surveying, barely using his head, but mostly his eyes behind his shades to do most of the work. That only got the second Demoman riled up as he roared despite gestured pleas from his teammates, even Sherry, to shut up without any success.
"Why not speak up? You deaf or mute, or something?! I don't appreciate us being stared at without a peep from you, ya dumb piece of crap!"
"Uh, no! Seriously, don't rile him! We don't know what he could do!" the second Blue Scout warned the volatile Scottish.
The InGen Sniper unsheathed his machete-like Bushwacka, which got everybody shaken up with some even glaring angrily at the Irish demolition expert. Just when the mysterious mercenary was about to go for the Demoman, he instead plunged his blade seemingly into thin air behind him only for blood to spurt out. The presence forcibly decloaked himself, revealing to be the Red Spy that tried to get the jump on him.
"Mon dieu…," those were the Red Spy's last words before the InGen sniper ripped the machete out of his chest, leaving an ugly gash that was spurting blood out like water from a ruptured hose. The Spy hit the ground with a wet thud where blood pooled underneath his corpse.
Everyone gasped with the Red team especially in terrified shock that this unknown mercenary killed their mercenary without so much giving him a glance.
"Be thankful that this bloke got the blade instead of any of you clowns," the InGen Sniper finally spoke. His voice sounded colder and raspier than Dennis' like a snake trying to speak while having asthma. "Besides, it's lunchtime."
The mercenary whipped out his flare pistol and raised it high up into the sky. He pulled the trigger, which launched a reddish-pinkish flare up into the sky. The flare burned much to the Red Sniper's amusement as he mocked him,
"Chickening out already, wanker?"
At first, nothing happened.
Then the Second Blue Scout felt it. Subtle at first, but it became more apparent to the Blue Team when they saw the water ripple with vibrations periodically in a specific pattern. Next, the sounds became clearer as gigantic footsteps belonging to something big was approaching from the jungle behind the Mercenary Park sign, which got all of the other mercenaries, regardless of Red or Blue, nervous.
"Heavy has a bad feeling about this," the second Blue Heavy with the Rambo haircut commented darkly.
A flock of birds were seen flying panicked from the jungle and past the huge billboard-sized words overlooking the entire park, which had everyone's attention. When the presence thundered itself right into their line of sight, they, except the InGen Sniper, had their mouths completely unhinged, falling onto the ground.
It shouldn't have survived.
It was supposed to be extinct for 65 million years.
Yet there it was. The proof of what should have been scientific implausibility belonging in the realms of science fiction now made real was towering over them.
Nothing short of either a miracle, or a disaster.
Tyrannosaurus rex. The King of the Dinosaurs was not only brought back from the dead and alive, but thriving well. The titanic, heavyset theropod purred. Its nostrils sniffing at the air, which picked up the scent of blood coming from the dead Red Spy and the injured Sherry. The reptilian predator turned its short, thick neck, pivoting its gigantic, boxy head towards where the InGen Sniper and the flabbergasted Red and Blue mercenaries were. The T. rex let out a guttural growl that sounded like twisted, throaty versions of crocodile and elephant grumbles mixed together, causing anyone who heard this beast for the first time to have instinctive chills of dread and awe.
The Red Engineer almost dropped his goggles as he muttered with stupefaction swelling up in his chest,
"Dear God...the rumors were true. They finally did it. Those insane sons of bitches did the impossible."
The Tyrannosaurus stomped onto the roof of the Visitor Center. From there, the beast crouched and then pushed itself off the roof completely with its strong, beefy hind limbs and long, stocky tail, overcoming the inertia and weight of its huge, powerful body.
"Holy Crikey!" Dennis' eyes widened from shocked realization that he was about to be roadkill. Thinking quickly, he jumped off the platform. The T. rex's massive three-clawed feet smashed the very spot where the Australian mercenary was moments ago. The tiles cracked from the sudden weight of 8 tons of dinosaur with chairs flying all over the place and the umbrellas and tables being crushed asunder underneath its mass. Dennis landed ungracefully onto the bay on the left side of the Visitor Center. He forced himself to somersault into a roll to mitigate what could have been a painful possibility for either his back or legs.
The T. rex was going to do another pouncing jump onto the very bay that the InGen sniper was on.
"Oh shit, move! Move! Move!" the second Blue Scout hollered. Everybody rolled, dived out of the way when the dinosaur's feet slammed onto that very spot. The bamboo shed was destroyed. Box crates were smashed and some were sent flying into the river. The ground shook so much that it threw all of the mercenaries off their footing, falling headfirst or on their bottoms. The Red Spy's corpse was reduced into a bloody paste on the floor. Sherry groaned, still hurting from her wounded side after she hit the ground. After she pushed herself up once more, her blood ran cold when she heard the loud wet sound of the beast sniffing close behind her. Turning around, the last thing she saw was the T. rex lunging its powerful jaws, twisting its muscled neck sideways so fast that she didn't comprehend that she had been lifted off the ground until the beast's spike-like teeth and hot breath struck her. She could only scream in soul-crushing terror as the teeth, which were powered by absolutely strong jaw muscles, cut deep into her flesh and pulverized her bones and insides.
With the exception of the InGen sniper, who reacted coolly indifferent at best, everyone else was rendered aghast and speechless as bloodchilling horror robbed them of their vocal cords. The second Scottish Blue Demoman nearly vomitted the whiskey he drank after Sherry's diced-off arm landed right onto his leg. Both Red and Blue Pyros screamed in incoherent gibberish.
The Red Engineer felt really sick to his stomach as he heard Sherry's spine snap under the pressure. Even more so when the Tyrannosaurus finally swallowed her dead corpse down its throat. As the Blue Team could only stare in stunned silence, they got a better look of the dinosaur. It stood at a towering 20 feet tall with marsh green scales with an emerald undertone to them while having dark forest green stripes, and a pale yellow underside. There were three stripes on top of the bumpy, rugose snout and two larger stripes running down its eyes. The stripes continued to run down from the base of its neck to the thighs where they were covered in large dark green blotch down to its knees. The tail was wrapped around in a series of stripes.
The beast had small red-orange eyes and a large jaw of teeth now covered in Sherry's blood with bits of her flesh dangling from its fangs. It has two pairs of larger teeth protruding from each corner of the lower jaw when its mouth was closed. Its hide was pebbly and armored, particularly starting from its neck to the tip of its tail as it was covered in three rows of small to medium-sized osteoderm plates. Its two large bird-like legs and feet had digits armed with three dark brown claws and a pair of short claw-tipped arms of the same color. The paralyzed mercenaries felt vulnerable under its hungry, predatory gaze with its nostrils blaring out, puffing out hot steam from the nasal cavities.
The scarred InGen Sniper gave a grinning snarl behind his teeth-styled bandana, pulling out his flare stick and igniting it. The high-pitched sizzling sound of the flare got the T. rex's attention as his beady, evil-looking eyes trained onto the bright illuminating light as the InGen Sniper slowly waved the flare in front of the massive theropod. Blue Scout #2 instinctively bit his tongue, not having any idea of what was about to transpire. Then the InGen Sniper did a magnificent throw of the flare with the T. rex's glare following its trajectory until it landed right in front of Red Soldier #2 with himself, Red Heavy #2, and Red Pyro #2 looking dumbfoundedly at the flare that dropped in front of him. The InGen Sniper pointed his gloved finger at the Red Team. He let out a nerve-chilling serpentine hiss coming through his bandana.
"Crush them all, Ralph."
The male T. rex's eyes glowed ominously red as they glared at the flare and the Red Team, its nostrils exhaled steam hard from its nasal cavities, and it opened its jaws wide, unleashing its thunderous warring roar that rendered the airspace to reverberate.
GRREEEOOOOOONNNKKK!
"God help us all," The second Blue Demoman muttered, fearfully realizing the carnage that was about to be unleashed by this prehistoric monster whose bloodlust was legendary amongst carnivores.
RROOOAAARRRNNNGGGKKKKK!
Ralph stomped onto the bridge walkway and went into a gradual charging sprint towards his intended new victims. His giant scaly feet shook the concrete tremendously with resounding booms.
"Stupid Soldier! Don't just stand here with your jaw all loose! FIRE AT THAT MONSTER!" Red Heavy #2 yelled, breaking Red Soldier #2 out of his terrified stupor as the T. rex fast-walked closer to them.
"Hey, don't get your panties all wound up! This rocket will make this dino extinct into the Stone Age!" He shot out a rocket at the theropod and exploded upon contact with the tyrant lizard king. Red Soldier #2 had to cover his face from the cloud of smoke obscuring his vision, but the moment he uncovered his face, his face fell upon seeing the Tyrannosaurus unaffected by the explosion with the beast letting out an alligator-like growling snarl.
Ralph the Saber-Toothed T. rex immediately lunged with his jaws wide open as he quickly came into striking distance.
"AAAAAHHHHH!" Red Soldier #2 screamed hysterically, having his entire life up to this point flash before his eyes before the giant theropod's heavy jaws slammed shut onto him with his upper half engulfed in the apex predator's mouth. His muffled screams could still be heard as the T. rex's teeth began tearing through his body and pulverizing bone with Ralph exerting little more than the minimum pressure his jaws could exert. Ralph not only crunched him, but also shook him side to side rapidly like a dog would with a chew toy. Once the mercenary's spine broke in half, the T. rex simply discarded him, tossing his corpse aside into the river where crocodiles would later feast on his remains.
Red Pyro #2, Red Medic #2, and Red Scout #2 that had arrived to reinforce the assault on Blue Team held up at the Visitor Center quickly retreated behind Red Heavy #2 seeing that this was a losing battle.
"Get back here, ya babies!" Red Heavy #2 roared in frustration as he immediately fired his minigun at Ralph. The hail of bullets hardly did anything to deter the 20-foot tall predator. If anything, they just caused him to be angrier and more annoyed with the bullets bouncing and stinging against his armored scaly hide. Ralph continued to build up speed, not stopping until he was able to bite into the minigun, much to the Russian man's great displeasure and ire.
"NO!" Red Heavy #2 desperately tried to save his precious minigun, but it was all for naught as the T. rex was way stronger than him as Ralph ripped it out of his musclebound hands without much trouble. The beast crushed the heavy weapon with his jaws and teeth before throwing it aside as a heaping scrap of torn up metal and parts.
"HOW! DARE! YOU! HURT! MY! MISHA!" Red Heavy #2, letting his rage control his small, brute mind, rushed up to the dinosaur up close and roared at his loudest at him. He roared for 30 seconds in his attempt to perhaps scare the T. rex into realizing he's in for a world of hurt.
However, the InGen Sniper could only facepalm at the stupidity the brute mercenary was displaying in trying to intimidate Earth's most ferocious prehistoric monster that had terrorized North America and fought much tougher and bigger enemies way beyond Red Heavy #2's paygrade many eons ago.
"Idiot..." As he put on his heavy-duty earplugs for what was about to occur.
Red Heavy #2 realized that as well, but too late, when he saw the T. rex didn't looked intimidated at all by his angry outburst, but rather peeved at his pathetic attempt. The musclebound mercenary gulped hard.
Now that it was Ralph's turn, the T. rex puffed up his chest greatly with his sternum and stomach expanding. His throat muscles bulging in size.
That was then when he threw his head forward and right into Red Heavy #2 when the monster roared much louder and more intense with his horrifyingly angry roar sounded like a hundred of pissed off lions, an angry herd of fifty trumpeting elephants, loudest foghorn sound, and with the ear-shattering sound of turbulence coming from the jet engine of an airliner mixed together. Ralph's roar was so powerful that it not only caused the entire park to shake, but also the air currents to ripple as the roar of dominance carried on for seven miles, which bent trees backwards, shaking up the surrounding jungle and scaring entire ecosystems. At the epicenter, which was Ralph, his roar was so intense that the structural foundations of the park started to fracture with cracks appearing in the ground and concrete. Everyone was literally blown away with one even crashing into one of the window panels of the Visitor Center. Red Heavy #2 not only had his entire outfit shredded, but he felt his skin being peeled off his entire being to the point his gums and almost his entire skeleton was exposed as if the skin was a tent sheet flapping in the torrential gusts of wind.
After Ralph was done roaring, everyone's, except InGen Sniper, hearing had been rendered deaf momentarily before it goes back to normal, albeit with some ringing in their ears. Even the Red Engineer wasn't immune despite being far from the epicenter. His own sentry had been destroyed by the roar like the Blue Engineer's sentries as well. He had to rub his fingers into his ears to get his hearing back to normal somewhat. Hard-hat wearing mercenary caught a glimpse of the second Red Heavy, who instead of fighting back, chose to run away with his metaphorical tail tucked between his legs and screamed cowardly like a scared high school girl. His goggles widened at the cartoonish sight with Heavy disappearing from view when he ran into the warehouse. His lower jaw slammed onto the ground just like most of his stunned colleagues.
"Oh shit…" The second Red Scout swore weakly, still trying to comprehend what he had just witnessed happening seconds ago.
Ralph grunted as his attention was no longer on the cowardly Heavy that just ran off into the facility, but now on the shaking Red Team members that had their morale plummeted after seeing their strongest dispatched so easily and quickly by him. He let out a snarling roar before resuming his terrifying charge towards them and slapping away splintered crates and scrapped sentries with the swing of his huge head in the process.
"WE ARE SO SCREWED!" Scout hollered fearfully before zipping away in a cloud of dust, which prompted others to follow suite as they didn't want to die facing the carnivorous dinosaur.
"I can't take it anymore!" Red Medic #2 said pathetically as he ran at the fastest he could muster, not wanting to be the last and be eaten. He ran so fast that Red Pyro #2 was trailing behind him.
Red Engineer saw that unless he repaired his damaged sentry within seconds, his friends were not going to make it to the gate in time before the Rex caught up to them. "Damnit! I have to repair this baby of mine now!" He pulled his wrench to try fix it, but he was robbed of that opportunity when a gunshot bucked the tool off from his hand and also shot his hand through his glove.
"AH!" The Engineer yelped with blood messing up his glove already.
"As if I'd let you," the InGen Sniper said sinisterly.
"Better get back inside, mate! I am going to cover you while you run faster than a 'roo to safety!" the Red Sniper shouted.
And the Engineer had to duck when the InGen Sniper attempted to do a headshot on him, forcing the injured repairman to retreat into the bunker. Red Sniper shot back at the InGen Sniper who was already taking cover behind one of the remaining crates on the bridge walkway.
Red Pyro #2 had the unfortunate luck of just being too slow when the Scout hastily closed the door leading into the facility built into the cliff itself. The masked man screamed furiously while truly scared at the same time as he was banging on it frantically, desperate to escape from the fate that awaited him. The Tyrannosaurus' growls behind him caused him to turn around in a whiplashing second as he knew now that he had no other option but to fight back. Lashing out, Red Pyro #2 turned up the heat of his flamethrower, firing every fuel cell he had in trying to keep the jaws of death away from him. Initially the flames did their job in deterring the giant predator as soon as they touched Ralph's face. Ralph back off, letting off a screeching hiss from being burned by the fire coming from the flamethrower. Red Pyro #2 laughed maliciously as he kept up the assault, driving the Rex back towards the bridge walkway. However, that was short-lived as excessive amounts of testosterone and adrenaline pumped into Ralph's bloodstream, dulling his senses, making him bodily insensitive to the flames cooking his scaly flesh. The T. rex saw red with his muscles now bulged 10% bigger their usual size. Ralph roared back, now truly infuriated with nothing but destruction in mind. The saber-toothed T. rex charged once more, this time ignoring the stream of flames burning against his scaly armor.
Pyro's sense of victory proved to be short-lived as Ralph headbutted him, sending the pyromaniac mercenary slamming into the wall with his flamethrower now detached from his fuel cell tank. Ralph picked up the offensive weapon in his jaws and immediately crushed it into scrap metal, not caring if the metal scalded the inside of his mouth as he was too filled with rage to even register it. Pyro #2 groaned painfully as he rolled onto his back with his spine fractured and his head all disoriented with ringing in his ears again. The last thing he ever saw was the greenish T. rex lifting his left leg and massive foot up in the air above him. All the masked pyromaniac could do in his last moment was letting out a muffled scream before Ralph slammed his clawed foot onto him ending him in an inglorious gory, broken mess. Sounds of flesh and organs being squished and bones being shattered into oblivion could be heard with the spectators only seeing a bloody paste of intestines and mangled limbs where the second Red-colored pyromaniac used to be.
"Go to hell, you bloody goana in the bush," Red Sniper growled, aiming his scope and muzzle to where InGen Sniper was hiding behind the shed.
However, InGen Sniper had other ideas as he pulled out from his pocket what looked like a bony, vaguely oval-shaped object the size of a tennis ball with a tubular hole of one end to another tube on the other end. He sucked in a good amount of air before blowing into the bony organ, producing a raspy, screeching bird-like sound that was between low and high-pitched in tone.
"What on earth is he up to now?" Red Sniper asked to himself.
Any minute now, InGen Sniper thought as he blew on the organic-looking organ horn for the second time.
The Red Sniper next aimed his scope at Ralph the T. rex to lure the InGen Sniper out from his cover; he was so focused on the T. rex, however, when he heard the same screech at a slightly higher pitch, this time coming from above. He barely had time to see a winged reptile with a wingspan of about 33 feet long and a four-foot long head sporting a long, tapering, spear-like beak like a stork's beak and a pointed cranial crest pointing upwards and backwards, divebombing at him.
"By crikey-!" That was all Red Sniper could say before he felt something forcefully piercing through his chest and lungs, causing him to jerk back. The Australian mercenary felt himself becoming shorter on breath with every second as pain engulfed him with blood filling up his lungs instead of air. Bloodied foam was leaking through his mouth. He looked down to see what impaled him and it was none other than the Pteranodon with its toothed beak that had done the gory deed.
The sniper croaked, grunting with labored breathing when the plane-sized pterosaur lifted him up from the platform with surprising ease with just moving its head alone. He got a good look of the Pteranodon as it had a mixed color pattern on its skin with prominent blotches of dark grey on its beak and most of its tailless body with blending of khaki brown and bright orange on the wings, neck and head, especially around its eyes. Its head crest was a mixture of striped black and stream of khaki and orange blended together. The wingtips were entirely black.
"Y-y-y-you b-b-bastard!" Sniper unsheathed his machete, but he didn't even get the chance to swing down his machete to wound it as he felt several sharp things digging into his arm, cutting into his skin and muscles. "GAAAAHHHH!"
Another, smaller Pteranodon with a duller color palette and wingspan of about 28 feet long compared to the first one bit into his arm. It squawked as it aggressively chomped on his arm repeatedly until it dangled limply and was rendered nonfunctional.
The poor Red Sniper was at the mercy of the pterosaurian couple that regarded him as easy pickings with cold, hawk-like stares in their already heron-like eyes with their raucous crowing.
He could only spit a glob of blood at the male Pteranodon right in its face out of utter defiance.
"Go to hell, Big Bird," the sniper said in contempt. Those were his last words as the female stabbed her beak into his face while the male impaled him in the stomach. His hands ceased to flail about as they slowed to a dead crawl; his fingers no longer twitched as he was killed by both pterosaurs.
"Sniper!" Engie saw what had happened and shouted without realizing that how close they were in proximity to him. The giant flying reptiles heard him as they snapped their heads around to face him in a bird-like manner. The female squawked harshly and flapped towards him rapidly for an animal of such size before she landed on all fours.
"Crap!" Engie quickly slammed the door shut and bolted it before the female banged violently onto it with her toothy beak. Some of her stabbing strikes even punched holes through the door.
"Holy moly! What a nasty buzzard you are!" Engie ran from the door and out the corridor.
The female Pteranodon screeched angrily in frustration with her prey out of her reach. Meanwhile, Ralph slammed his body repeatedly against the door until it and the surrounding wall caved to his disruptive force and strength.
"What the shit did we just watch?!" a flabbergasted Blue Spy #2 hollered.
"I don't know what...this part wasn't what we signed up for," the equally dumbfounded Blue Engineer had no better answer either.
Inside, everything was in absolute disorder as the T. rex busted through another door and wall from the corridor. Ralph was in furious rampage as borderline unhealthy amounts of adrenaline and testosterone coursed throughout his bloodstream, making him truly berserk. His roar caused the very warehouse's walls and lights to be reverberated until the latter's bulbs blew out, turning the place darker than the outside and making his red glowing eyes all the more menacing.
"We gotta stop that overgrown lizard!" Red Scout #2 shouted, standing in between Red Pyro #3 with a skull mask and Red Demoman with all three of them pointing their weapons at the berserker King of the Dinosaurs. On the other side, Red Soldier #3 in a British hunting outfit and Red Spy #2 in a ninja-esque outfit with some samurai shoulder plates aimed their weapons at the dinosaur as well. Ralph snarled before he charged at Scout #3, which prompted all to open with all guns blazing. However, because of the darkness that reduced the visibility of the T. rex's bodily outline to the mercenaries despite his glowing eyes, most didn't hit their mark. If some of their rounds did, they only grazed thanks to his heavily durable scales.
Ralph's jaws only snapped at thin air after Scout, Pyro, and Demoman dodged out of harm's way with the jaws creating a deafening snapping sound. Demoman had to leap out of the way for the second time when Ralph decided to go after him. Ralph bit not the Demoman but thin air again. During those seconds before Ralph lunged at him, Demoman placed five sticky bombs; three on the suspended walkway above, the other two on the ground. The Tyrannosaurus was unaware of what the demolition expert executed, and it didn't matter to him. His main instinct was that of pure destruction and he's single focused on destroying the one-eyed annoyance that was Demoman. The one-eyed Scottish "cyclops" launched his grenade launcher at the monster. Upon contact with the violent dinosaur, the grenade imploded, causing an explosive chain reaction of the sticky bombs above Ralph and beneath his feet.
The combined explosions were enough to knock the beast off of his game. A parts of the broken panel walkway broke off and fell on top of the T. rex, pinning him down to the floor with the beast struggling to overcome them.
"Now bombard Godzilla while he is down! Fire!" Soldier commanded, but before anyone could fire, Demoman was shot to the brain and he died instantly on the spot.
"Not if I have anything to say about it, bloke," said the InGen Sniper coldly as he put his Sniper Rifle behind him and pulled out his fortified compound bow. In the blink of an eye, he fired one arrow right into Scout's right leg, disabling him with the Boston boy falling down and clutching his bloodied leg..
"GAH! My beautiful legwork!" Scout shouted.
InGen Sniper fired another arrow at Pyro's flamethrower. This time it was a special type of arrow that had an armor-piercing arrowhead with it and the shaft being fire-resistant. He had the arrow specifically target the propane tank beneath the weapon, which the arrow ruptured midway into it. Pyro mumbled angrily when he immediately saw no flames being sputtered out from the nozzle.
"Get that son of a bitch, lads!" Red Soldier #2 already was firing off a rocket at the InGen mercenary only for him to jump high in the air and fire an arrow right into Soldier's left arm at a specific point. Soldier lost his handling of his favorite weapon due to the sharp, acute pain engulfing his arm thanks to the arrow being built like a syringe of sorts injecting synthetic neurotoxic venom into his bloodstream via penetration point.
"Damnit! Medic!" Soldier yelled out as he was now struck with another arrow to his right leg and the third to his stomach.
Thanks to the Red Team's momentary distraction, Ralph was able to kick parts of the panel off of him, which fell on top of the downed Scout.
"Argh! Shit, this sucks!" Scout swore as he was pinned down in addition to his leg hurting much worse with their combined weight and steel struts pressing on top of it. He then saw Ralph get back onto his huge bird-like feet and picked up the another crooked panel piece with his jaws before flinging it across towards Pyro, who was firing back at Ralph with his own shotgun even when the rounds only stung him at best, anger him at worst.
Pyro barely avoided being bludgeoned in the chest when he rolled forward out of the way.
However, the same couldn't be said for Red Scout #2 with Ralph about to stomp the metal pieces with him beneath them.
"Oh, this is-" The giant foot crushed him before he could even finish his sentence. Ralph lifted his foot revealing a bloodied, distorted pancake of what was once Red Scout #2.
The InGen Sniper bounded back to Ralph with the latter immediately lashing out with a tornado-like roar that was weaponizing his hot breath into pressurized, concentrated gusts. The latter's roar was not only blowing down crates, but also weakening the support struts as well as damaging the mercenaries caught in the pressurized sonic blast. Ralph pivoted his head and body around 180 degrees, aiming the sonic stream in a devastating arc in the Red Team's direction.
"GYARRRGGHH!" Red Pyro #3 was sent flying hard into a steel support strut and was knocked out cold. It and the second strut were so warped by Ralph's Gale Sonic Roar that they collapsed onto themselves with the room it was supporting imminently about to flatten Pyro.
Soldier tried to make a run for the elevator but was far too late when the streaming sonic blast engulfed him faster than he anticipated. Before he knew it, he was sent slamming the back of his head against a series of pipes. The impact ruptured a hole with steam now billowing out in a loud hiss. And the back of his own skull was scalded in the process as he blacked out.
Red Spy #3, whose own Dead Ringer saved his own hide with his fake doppleganger taking the hit, hid behind one of the steel crates least affected by Ralph's roar. Still he didn't come out of the horrific audio assault totally unscathed as he was nearly rendered deaf with prominent ringing jumbling up his brain to the point he was already having migraine.
"Damn, my hearing's nearly gone. This dino certainly has exceptionally strong lungs," Spy said. He rubbed his forehead, shaking his head to temporarily rid himself of his migraine, even if just a little. Then the world rocked around him as an explosion occurred where the pipes ruptured with Red Soldier #2 vaporized by the explosive flames.
"This place is falling apart," Red Spy #3 looked around, but found it difficult to focus with the creaking sounds making his migraine flare up worse. "Hggh...I need to get out of here!"
His face grew into a mixture of relief, anger, and panic when he heard the voices of Red Medic #2 and other Red mercenaries coming from the slide door on the other side. "You idiots!" Spy hissed as he willed himself to run from the crate he's hiding behind.
On the other hand, Red Medic #2 was leading the remaining Red Team mercenaries when a hot cloud of steam mixed with smoke smacked them right in their faces.
"What zhe hell is happening?!" the good doctor yelled as he covered his face from the suffocating cloud.
Another explosion rocked the Mann Co. warehouse with the mercenaries nearly thrown off their feet.
"*Cough!* I can't see a thing through this wall of smoke!" Red Heavy #3 wearing a baseball cap exclaimed.
"Pyro! Can you airblast our way through this obnoxious cloud of burning crap with your flamethrower?" Red Soldier #3 turned to Pyro, who answered with gestures and a muffled voice sounding through his mask-breather anyone could barely understand.
"Uh, seriously? No! Bad idea for us to waltz in when there's a bloodthirsty dinosaur and some creepy lizard sniper waiting to pick us off. I'd say we screw this rescue and get our asses outta here while the going is still good!" Scout complained.
Echoing roars from Ralph inside the smoky interior of the Mann Co. warehouse brought the group of the Red mercenaries to silence with whatever words they formed in their vocal chords died just as quickly. All of them aimed their weapons into the smoking entrance to the crumbling warehouse. None of them dared to move a muscle.
Seconds turned into what seemed like agonizing hours with sweat dripping down their brows. The Tyrannosaurus roared once more with foot stomps sounding distant at first. Their senses riled up into nervous frenzy with the stomps gradually becoming louder and more earthshaking. The beast was getting closer.
"Doctor..." Heavy #3 said seriously while he reeved up his minigun. Without needing any further prompt, the Medic blasted the Ubercharge beam onto the giant brute of a mercenary.
Then the stomping stopped abruptly.
...
...
...
...
...
...
...
There was nothing, but eerie silence that descended upon the facility.
"Something's wrong." the second Red Sniper with a beanie skull cap observed as he observed smoke and steam being pulled by what looked like a suction force coming from deep inside.
Then silence dropped onto them once more for a moment.
"RUN!"
"Spy?" Sniper asked in an unsure sound of his voice.
They saw his outline visibly appear in the smoke cover, but it was his panic-stricken, bloodshot eyes that spooked them, which deviated from their calculated, intelligent gleam they were used to.
"Run, you bloody imbeciles! The thing's about to-!" Ralph's loudest roar drowned out his own loud, hollering voice with billowing gusts of steam and smoke engulfing him.
Red Spy #3 didn't even get to scream with his own expression twisted into agony of horror before he was forcibly sent flying towards them.
"Aw, piss!" Sniper swore before everyone screamed their mouths off while being blasted away out of the docks and into the crocodile-infested river by Ralph's Sonic Gale Roar, which rendered them almost unconscious as they splashed into the water. Their splashes caused vibrations to ripple through the medium that attracted the Saltwater crocodiles lurking in the bottom and afar.
Red Heavy #3 swam frantically up to the surface. He gasped hard for breath.
"Argh! This is very bad," he said frustratedly when he saw that his minigun was no longer in his hands, lost to the bottom of the deep river. That was when he saw large shadowy forms of crocodiles emerging from the dark murkiness of the river bottom. His face paled, losing his color when he realized he was screwed.
"Crud...," Heavy muttered before a crocodile torpedoed up and lunged at his legs.
"AAAAHHHHHH!" He felt his legs being torn and shredded by the reptile's conical teeth. "Get your jaws off!"
He was dragged into the water before he was silenced when another Saltie clamped its jaws onto his bald head. The giant man flailed about his large arms to grab onto any of their heads unsuccessfully. Soon the two crocs performed their death rolls with each twisting his head and leg about, tearing away the muscles with copious amounts of blood and guts flowing out into the water. It wasn't long before a third crocodile joined in on the macabre execution as it bit onto one of Heavy's arms and began its own death roll, twisting the limb off via teeth and bodily brute force.
"You crocs are not taking me down! I am taking you scaly handbags down with me!" Soldier #3 was in a losing fight with a Saltie that latched onto his arm and chest with its jaws. Teeth tearing through his sleeve and right into his flesh as the large crocodile crunched on his limb repeatedly, breaking through his ribs, arm and wrist bones despite the battle-hardened mercenary punching it right in the eyes for good measure. He was pulled into the water with his defiant words becoming distorted underwater in the form of crimson bubbles frothing from his mouth.
"Bloody hell!" Red Sniper #2 gasped for air with his head and collarbone emerging from the water when he felt the top of his head bare, albeit soaking wet. He saw he lost his folded fedora hat. He cursed punching into the water, knowing that he was in the worst place to try looking for it. Sniper saw Soldier being dragged down into the depths before the water turned red beneath the surface.
"Crikey! Ain't way I'm swimming with salties! Over my dead body!" He tried to swim, but he couldn't even get far as he felt his waist being bitten by one of the aquatic reptilian predators as he dragged away into the middle of the river. "NO! NO! HEELLLPPP! AAAAAAHHHHH!" Those were his last screams before the croc pulled him underwater with his fate sealed.
"MEDIC!" Scout #3 tried to swim save the German mercenary doctor, who was in dire straits with the smaller and younger, but no less deadly, crocodiles gunning for him as they just slipped from the jungle brushes and into the water within the blink of an eye.
"No, dumpkoff! Back away! You vill kill us both when these beasts are faster than all of us together in the water!" Medic warned.
"Forget about that! I am not going to leave you to be eaten alive when I can still save you, or die trying!" Scout said in denial as he pumped his legs as best as he could in swimming to aid the Medic, even though he was not very adept in the water compared to being on land or in the air.
"That's the last thing you vill do!" Medic shrieked insistently when a loud seagull-like screech sounded from above as the male Pteranodon divebombed from the sky, swooping down onto him like a speeding bullet. Both the airborne reptile and the Red Medic #2 disappeared in a huge splash. Then the water splashed outward as the Pteranodon flapped rapidly his massive bat-like wings away from the river's surface with the terrified mercenary doctor caught in his raptorial hind feet like an osprey would to a salmon. If the Medic wasn't already absolutely in mortified horror, he certainly was now when he knew there was no escaping from this. Then to add insult to injury, one of the younger Saltwater crocodiles leaped from the water and its jaws nabbed him by the leg just a little higher than his boot with a powerful bone-crunching snap.
"AAHH!" Medic screamed.
"SKKRRAAWWK!" The Pteranodon yelped when both he and the Medic were pulled down by the young croc's body, which was still considerably heavier than the larger pterosaur's body with the flying creature having lightweight, hollow bones and lighter body mass in contrast to the crocodile's more solid skeletal structure and scaly armor. And that was already plus with the Medic's body weight and weight of the equipment.
Thankfully for the Pteranodon, but unfortunately for the victimized doctor, the crocodile's bite force destroyed the muscle tendons and leg bone, which basically severed the foot off.
"YYEEEAAAARRRGGGGHHHH!" Medic's agonized cries echoed through the jungle airspace as tears of pain rolled from his eyes down his cheeks as the male Pteranodon airlifted him high up into the sky.
Scout #3 felt himself becoming nauseated and almost losing balance floating in the river when he glanced at the crocodile chomping down the Medic's severed foot and swallowing it.
"HELP MEEEEE!" Red Medic #2 hollered while trying vainly to knock at the Pteranodon's strong, sharp-clawed feet with futile hope of being released. His cry was answered with a sharp stab to his abdomen due morbid courtesy of the female Pteranodon that took off into the sky shortly after her mate did. Then the male Pteranodon did an acrobatic aerial backflip, throwing the blood-gurgling Red Medic higher into the air after letting go of him. Both of the twistedly-romantic pterosaurs then caught him in midair with their toothed beaks, which was where the real horror manifested as they began to pull the doctor apart with the twisting pull of their slender, yet strong necks.
Before the traumatized Red Scout could even comprehend, the macabre romance turned into a horror show when the doctor's arms and last leg were finally severed apart with the Red Medic #2's eyes slowly turning lifeless and white. The female Pteranodon quickly grabbed him with her foot talons.
"Oh my God...," Scout whimpered as it was over in a flash, faster than at the max speed he ran on the battlefield with the Medic gruesomely ripped apart like a squirrel torn apart by a pair of mated hawks.
Then reality had to be a sadistic bitch when a guttural growl from the younger croc forced his attention to where the aquatic predator was slowly approaching him. It perfectly maneuvered through the murky water with its slit eyes blinking subtly while bearing the unmistakable predatory gleam; representing its clear intent to kill him in the gruesome way it and its kind know best.
Scout had his heart shoot right up to his throat in his moment of horrifying realization with his heartbeat thumping at an insane pace that he could practically hear it with every undulation of the croc's paddle-like tail.
He had no way to outrun the beast in the river, nor could he fight his way out. It was only a matter of time the croc would clamp its spring trap-like jaws onto him and there were other crocs around that would do the same no matter where he would try to swim to. In fact, he could see them, which were around the young croc's age or older, swimming towards him with the same hungry intent for bloodlust in their reptilian eyes.
In short, he was screwed.
As for Red Spy #3 who barely managed to escape from being destroyed by the crocodiles in the river, he was now stuck between a rock and a hard place. He was on the ladder up to the dock only to find the infuriating InGen Sniper standing directly above the ladder, waiting for him with his handgun in his hands, primed and loaded. Down beneath him, lurking under the water's surface was another Saltwater crocodile waiting for him to fall so that it could make a tasty meal out of him.
Spy contemplated his options, but none of them would end well for him either way. InGen Sniper's hissing, rasping laugh irritated him to elicit a snarling frustration.
"I have no illusions about my position here, but what you did, what you and your pet have done to me and my team...word will get out," Spy said.
"I doubt that's going to happen, mate. After all, dead men tell no tales. And what are you going to do? Try to climb up and nab my gun when I'm going to shoot you clean in the head? Or dive back in the river and hope those crocs don't eat you alive on the way?" InGen Sniper said without any hint of emotion as his finger was on the verge of pulling the trigger. "You and I have some things in common, mate, except you're about to be dead."
Spy gritted his teeth and narrowed his bloodshot eyes in utter hatred for this cold-blooded man with sweat wetting his face mask.
Just when he was about to have his face blown off, Red Spy #3 saw the InGen Sniper got hit hard in his own face by a surprise attack from Engie slamming his wrench into him, which tore away his dark bandana as it landed into the water and broke his sunshades. The InGen Sniper tumbled away where he ambled close to the edge of the dock, shielding the side of his face away from the Red Engineer.
"I'm going to lay you out so badly that you will be wishing you stayed back at your little campsite!" Engineer growled furiously after witnessing the InGen Sniper incapacitate Red Scout #2 and Red Soldier #3, and enabled Ralph to destroy them.
InGen Sniper gave out a more animalistic snarl as he uncovered the side of his face, which was more reptile than human.
Spy's face fell with horror dawning on him as he muttered,
"Dear God..."
Whatever another insult the Red Engineer formulated in his throat died right away at the sight of what used to be the man's cheek being nothing more than a sole thin strand of skin that exposed his back teeth that were sharp and reptilian; more akin to that of a carnivorous dinosaur. His front teeth had sharp canine fangs more like a viper with his once human lips covered in scales. Both of his eyes turned from human pupils into serpentine slits within seconds with his right eyebrow having scaly hornlets in comparison to his normal human eyebrow. What was once a nose, now there were only nostril holes.
The man, or what he used to be a man, was something else with the bandana and shades now absent.
InGen Sniper let out an otherworldly screech at the Engineer, who had the gall to surprise attack him with the wrench.
"Jumping rattlesnakes…What demon from hell are you?" the clearly flabbergasted Engineer barely said in an aghast whisper. That little moment was what the inhuman InGen Sniper too advantage of when he sped closing the distance so quickly that Spy thought the humanoid creature more likely teleported in front of the Engineer. The hardhat-wearing mercenary had no time to dodge being tackled to the dock floor with his wrench tool flying out of his gloved hand. The being was on top of him, immediately slicing him across the face with his left hand now mutated into a scaly, armored limb with fingers armed with sharp claws.
The Engineer hollered in horrific pain with blood spurting all over his face from the claw gashes. The strike was so decisive and powerful that it ripped off his goggles, nearly tearing his eyes out. Red Engineer was blinded as he tried to punching at the being's face and succeeded, but failed at knocking the thing off of him as he could hear the being snarling in annoyance. When the Engineer lashed out to punch again, instead the being gripped him by the wrist with the kind of strength that no human being ever possessed. He cried when he felt sharp, harsh pain coming from his wrist as the creature twisted it in an unnatural angle, effectively breaking his wristbone with a sickeningly wet snap being heard. Then it turned for the worse for Red Engineer when he felt even sharper pain coming from his hand when the half-man, half-reptile bit half of his hand off with its sharp, human-like, yet dinosaurian teeth sliced through flesh and bone.
"AAARRRGGGHHH!"
The InGen Sniper spat out the half-severed hand as it sailed into the water below the docks. He then unsheathed his Bushwacka machete while pushing down Engineer's remaining hand. He quickly stabbed through the mercenary's hardy hand to the point that it punctured through the dock floor that served as a pinning anchor point to trap his victim.
"I need help! Anyone!" Engineer desperately cried for help as the inhuman Sniper already began wailing on him with a flurry of punches, specifically at the clawed gashes he made on his face with each punch bloodying him to the point that his cheekbone cracked under the pressure in addition to having his only good eye turned black and blue.
"Hang on, Engie!" Spy accelerated his climb up the ladder to try save him.
But it was too late as InGen Sniper opened his toothy maw out wide and lunged down, biting onto his throat. Engie screams grew louder and more choked as the InGen Sniper's fangs pierced right into his voice box. Then with a quick twist and pull of his head, he forcibly tore out his throat, leaving Engie to choke on his own blood as he quickly died on the spot.
"NOOOOOOOOO!" Spy rushed in with vengeance clouding his vision after hearing Engie's last gasps at the creature's claws. He stabbed his knife onto the InGen Sniper's back, which elicited a pained human, yet so inhuman yelp from the reptilian humanoid.
"Bad move, mate," InGen Sniper's more reptilian and distorted voice sounded like an unnerving mix of human voices coupled with alligator growls. He quickly retaliated with a backhanded swing of his fist to the Spy's head, which sent the Red Spy #2 flying and almost off the ledge of the dock thanks to the monster's inhuman super strength. The InGen Sniper growled as he stood up, yanking the knife embedded into his jacket and back out of him.
Red Spy #2 grumbled and groaned with his jaw sore so much that he swore he felt it almost dislocate from its hinges. He readjusted his lower jaw just to make sure it wasn't fractured. Once he was sure it wasn't unhinged, he focused on trying to push himself off the ground quickly. Whatever small relief he had was erased by the headache he felt from the InGen Sniper's backhanded swing.
"Sacre bleu... It's like Heavy hitting me right in the face with his knuckle sandvich," Red Spy #2 commented as he shakily stood up while trying to overcome the headache. His vision cleared up to see the inhuman, half-reptilian sniper discarding his knife away into the river.
InGen Sniper retrieved his machete impaled into Engie's hand, turning around to face him with a cold serpentine glare.
"Let's settle this like gentlemen," Spy unsheathed his Big Earner knife and the other knife, Black Rose from two of his pockets. He wielded them in dual-wielding position as he needed to go all out as best as he could as he was backed into a corner. "That's if you are even human to begin with." He taunted back with a dark look on his face.
Unfazed, InGen Sniper unsheathed another machete type weapon, the Tribalman's Shiv from his right hip. He held the weapon in his left hand while wielding his Bushwacka in the right hand.
"I am just getting started, and you're already dead," Sniper said coldly without any hint of humanity in his voice, which was eerily reflected in his slit eyes that subtly illuminated in a hazel blue glow, giving off an otherworldly greenish-blue hue from them.
Spy furrowed his eyebrows with his expression darkening further. His grip on his two knives tightened.
The tension was extremely tense in the air with the only sounds were Ralph's snarling growls, the smoke and fire crackling from the warehouse.
Time seemed to slow down to a crawl.
The world seemed to stand still until the sound of bladed steel clanging against bladed steel broke the silence. Knife clashed against machete.
The duel between man and monster.
Spy against Creature; neither man nor beast.
Red Spy #2 struck with his Big Earner. InGen Sniper deflected the hit with his Bushwacka and struck back with it. He intended to diagonally slice the Spy across his face, but the agile mercenary dodged it. Spy attempted to perform a feint as he looked like to do a strong swing of his Big Earner to prompt his opponent to block the attack; only to stop halfway and execute a quick sneak stab at his abdomen with Black Rose. What he didn't expect was for his enemy to see through the ruse and expertly deflect that as well.
'Damn! His senses are sharper than I expected!' Spy yelled out of shock mentally, which his surprised rising of his left eyebrow said it all.
InGen Sniper lashed out back with his Bushwacka, slicing him in the left arm. The nasty gash forced Black Rose out of Spy's grasp. His sleeve bled dark crimson with blood messing it up badly. Spy hissed in pain and by the realization that he was down to just Big Earner. He was not in a good position just being down to his one and only knife weapon that was hardly suited for more intense sword fights like this.
The InGen Sniper didn't give him the luxury to reflect as he pressed on the attack, becoming bolder and more aggressive in his swings.
"Oh no!" Spy had to dodge and block the dual-wielding Sniper's machetes at the same time. He was at a perilous disadvantage as he was cornered to the edge of the dock where there was hardly any space for him to maneuver. The masked mercenary was trying to hold out as best as he could. It was amazing that he could block and deflect all the strikes with just his Big Earner.
However, his luck had finally ran out as the fast and furious, albeit precise, machete dual strikes had tired his defense out. InGen Sniper took advantage of the opening to stab Spy in the right side with his Tribalman's Shiv.
"Hrrrgghh!" Spy grunted painfully when he felt the wooden blade impale him where it nearly struck his kidney, missing it by a couple of inches. The inhuman Sniper retracted the Shiv and Spy bled profusely from the grievous wound.
Spy backed away with his right hand clutching the wound to prevent blood from spilling outright. He pulled out his Dead Ringer, but before he could even activate it, his left hand was severed off from his arm. The hand was sent flying into the crocodile-infested river beyond with the Dead Ringer in its grasp.
Blood spilled from the cuttoff point where his hand once was as Spy only comprehended just now what had happened to him. He clutched onto the stump on his left arm as he collapsed onto his knees with the InGen Sniper emotionlessly towering over him. He was overtaken by exhaustion and blood loss, losing consciousness with his world growing darker.
"Argh...ghhh...gkk!...pre-...p-preposterous...," those were Red Spy #2's last words before he grunted out his last breath. He fell face first onto the floor, dying with a large pool of blood forming underneath him.
InGen Sniper swung both of his machetes in one quick, fluid motion to rid off the blood of his defeated enemy. He tucked them back into their respective sheaths with the sound of steel rubbing against them before ending in clicking sounds. The InGen Sniper turned around; his back facing the dying Spy as he whipped out his extra sunshades from his breast pocket and another bandana from his hip pocket. After he donned his bandana on covering his mouth and nose, he said without sparing a glance at his fallen victim,
"What a disappointing hunt. I expected better from you."
He then cast his glance at the InGen hellicopters that were now hovering in airspace above Mercenary Park.
"Mercenary Park will be ours."
Then he casted one last side glance at Spy from the corner of his eye as he continued,
"And if this is the best you could offer, you're better off dead, lad. You're all done."
With that, he took off. When he stopped by, approaching Ralph, who purred expectantly for his treat. The InGen Sniper pulled out a huge chunk of cow meat wrapped in an equally large plastic sheet soaked in blood. Unwrapping it, he opened the meat and tossed the chunk high up into the air. Ralph had no problem catching it in his jaws where he chomped on it twice before he gulped it down. Ralph let out a satisfied growl and the InGen Sniper gently petted him on the snout for a job well done as the announcer's voice rang out,
"We have taken the enemy's Intelligence."
Some time much later...Nighttime...
After the Red Team's Intelligence files have been delivered to Blue Team's base thanks to the intervention of InGen, InGen's mercenary teams began sweeping inspections throughout Mercenary Park. The Red Team's remaining surviving mercenaries were found and later rounded up.
All of this was done much without the baffled Blue Team having any say in the matter as none of them expected Masrani Global, of all multinational corporations, to intervene in on their operation; let alone participate in such an unusual matter via a team comprised of a genetically created T. rex, a mated pair of Pteranodons, and a lone sniper mercenary of their own after the Jurassic Park Incident of 1993, the T. rex San Diego Incident of 1997, etc. including the latest Jurassic World fiasco not too long ago. Pivotal, unfortunate events that put InGen and Masrani Global Co. under much scrutiny in the public eye for various controversies harking back to both Jurassic Park and its later successor.
Or perhaps because of them that the multinational corporation had to resort to unconventional, underhanded means to rev up profits in other areas to make up for the losses of Jurassic World. The military industrial complex was such an area of focus, especially regarding their keen interest in potentially weaponizing prehistoric extinct specimens for war.
And Mann Co., sadly, was no different. The only problem for them was having the legal access to resources needed to clone and genetically modify the prehistoric beasts. That was where Masrani Global Co. came in.
As of right now, when InGen's mercenaries and cleanup teams gave the green light, researchers and technicians from both InGen and Mann Co. arrived to reorganize and retrofit Mercenary Park into something else. It was no longer to be just a tropical-themed fighting park for the Red and Blue Teams.
Again, unfortunately, the Blue Team had no say in the matter. There was nothing much they could do to protest such a move lest they'd risk being fired for insubordination by the higher-ups. There was one thing one of them could do in the moment, however...
The InGen Sniper was minding his own business by the river shore away from the temporary camps set up by InGen's grunts. He was taking what looked like medication pills of sorts and gulping them down his throat, which afterwards he drank from his bottle of water. On his left was Ralph drinking from the river after having his feast on a cow carcass to clean his own mouth as best as any T. rex could. The two were enjoying the moonlight serenade of the chirping insects, nocturnal frogs, and some birds singing. The InGen Sniper closed his eyes peacefully with his grinning snarl of his distorted mouth genuinely curving into a happy smile after decades of having to live in an artificial environment with doctors constantly probing him at every turn just like Ralph and other creatures like him. He yearned for this.
The want to experience an honest-to-God wilderness. He finally obtained it after countless small, low-profile missions.
However, his sharp ears picked up the rustling sound of footsteps and he knew who those belonged to. His mouth returned to the snarling grimace he was infamous for around InGen's research staff and senior management. He wasn't the only one as Ralph picked up on the scent of the presence approaching them with his nostrils thanks to possessing the strongest sense of smell in the animal kingdom. The Saber-Toothed T. rex's mood turned pensive with his jaws curling into a wary snarl with a growl rumbling from his throat. The InGen Sniper didn't seem to take any action with his body outwardly composed while keeping his animalistic urge to lash out at the intruder in check; even as the barrel of a shotgun was pointed at the back of his hooded head when he heard the click.
"Aren't you supposed to be hunkering down with your co-workers for the night? Or...are you here to avenge your brother?" InGen Sniper asked Engie AKA Deli Conagher's twin brother, Hank Conagher, or Blue Engineer, who was the one pointing the shotgun at him with a crossed look on his face.
"I saw what you did to my brother and to that Red Spy that you hacked his arm off on the security footage. Vengeance I may desire, but it's not why I am here tonight...not yet, anyways." Hank said.
"If not for vengeance, why point the shotgun at my head? Unless...you're looking to get something out from me." InGen Sniper looked at him from the corner of his eye. bu 9
"You're damned right about that. I'm here for answers." Hank clutched his free left hand into a fist, "And I want good ones. None of the PR bullshit I've been getting from lately. That's the last thing I want to hear from you lest you want me to blow that ugly alligator grimace off of your face."
"Hmph...why come to me? I'm the last person you should be asking clarity about matters in the executive level of both companies. I'm a hired gun just like the rest of you are." InGen Sniper coldly responded to the thinly veiled threat.
"What you and your pet dino did in thrashing the place beg to differ on that, you freakshow," Hank retorted.
"And even if I had an inkling what went on between my bigwigs and yours behind closed doors, why should I tell you about stuff you shouldn't be sticking your hard-headed nose into?" InGen Sniper said elusively, which rattled Hank with his skin bristling at the dig directed towards him.
Hank responded darkly, "Because you stuck yours into ours first." He released the safety, "Unannounced. And without warning."
The InGen Sniper stood up, turning around to face Hank with his slit eyes illuminating brightly with the eerie bluish hazel light behind the shades. "If Ralph and I hadn't dropped in, you would have your sorry hides chewed out right about now."
"It's not your intervention that is getting me riled up. It is that we were never told about it in my team's briefing with the higher-ups before we embarked on what amounted to a suicide mission is what irks me! InGen has been Mann Co.'s rival for decades and then suddenly we're allies?! That does not sit well with me after all the shady deals and conceited tricks they pulled in their horrendous dinosaur park and the disastrous predecessor before that!" Hank ranted, putting off the eerie glow around the Sniper's eyes as an optical illusion caused by the reflection of the moon on the river's surface.
"So what?" InGen Sniper said indifferently.
"Ever since you and your giant yellowbelly pets have butted in, I have been very unsettled the moment I saw that logo on that shirt. I see the lab equipment those co-workers of yours are carrying and they're awfully similar to that of a certain failed park where man tried to play God." Hank pointed his gloved finger to the campsite three miles from their location. "I mean, butting into our former quarters and installing that kind of sophisticated technology with soldiers guarding all over the place? That's more than just a simple remodeling."
"That place had been neglected and underused for years. We have much to renovate and update the Park to accommodate both our needs and yours more efficiently," InGen Sniper came up with a half-truth excuse to deflect the claim. However, Hank wasn't buying it as he saw through the lie.
"More like a takeover with the rug being pulled right under mine and my coworkers' feet!"
"Like I said, a major renovation along with needed upgrades to the Park. That is all you need to know," InGen Sniper said, subtly hissing in a threatening undertone.
"That's it, huh? Trying to be fork-tongued with me, not being straight with your future allies about your corporation's another attempt to resurrect Jurassic Park? Is that how it goes, ya snake in the grass?" Hank said exasperatedly.
"Tread carefully with your words, mate, or risk having your live forfeit. The jungle is not exactly the best place to do as such," Sniper warned with a low snarl.
"Maybe it's because something about the damned park means that much to you and that Godzilla-sized iguana here." That was when Hank's words crossed a line when in the next moment, Hank was spinning, seeing green all over as he felt like somebody struck a sledgehammer right into his chin that made him accidentally bite his own tongue in the process. Before he could process it, his back struck the forest floor at a nearly 90 degree angle that his feet suspended high in the air before gravity took over and pulled them onto the ground in a large thud. He rubbed his chin where the Sniper struck him with an uppercut so quickly with his inhuman strength that it rattled his skull. Shaking the pain off, he rolled and tried to reach for his shotgun that was ten feet away from him, but Ralph's foot came into vision as the T. rex stomped on his weapon, shattering it. He could feel the dinosaur's hot breath along with the musky, iron-scented stench of blood emanating from some of the bloodied drool dripping from the theropod's spike-like fangs.
Ralph hissed out an intimidating growl that made his spine instinctively cold with primal fear with his hairs spiked up. The King of the Dinosaurs' eyes were more menacing as they shone like a pair of crimson moons that stare straight into his soul.
"We were just about to enjoy hearing the frogs croak their serenade until you showed up." Sniper crossed his arms as he stood besides Ralph, "And Ralph over here, he is none too pleased about that either. Fortunately for you, he just had his meal; so you can thank your lucky stars that he ain't going to eat ya, mate. But don't mistake me that he won't kill you if you persist in annoying him further than he already is with you trying to antagonize me for answers, which you frankly are in no position to do so."
"You think I will keep my mouth shut when I am going to report to the supervisors about what you guys are actually doing? Let alone you threatening to kill me just because you couldn't handle a question about what Masrani Global or InGen is exactly planning to do?" Hank warned, but was perplexed when he heard the mysterious demi-human chuckling like he was the one who was crazy.
"Wow...for an Engineer who is supposed to have his high intellect screwed tightly to his hard head, you're really naïve. Why do you think Mann Co. didn't lift a finger when Masrani Global sent us to save your ass from getting roasted by the Reds? Or let's go further back. Why did the Mann Co.'s company board really allow you jokers to run roughshod with the park when they could have it closed down and terminated right off map right under President Hale's nose?"
Hank almost dropped his jaw at the implication when he clenched his jaw and his hands gripped the ground.
"They knew about it. All of them, for so long." Hank gritted his teeth at the realization that Masrani Global Co. and Mann Co., supposed rivals of each other, were in cahoots with one another for quite a long while. "Did President Saxton Hale knew about this would happen as well?"
"Heh...not at first, but he eventually came around to our offer for a strategic alliance between Masrani Global Co. and Mann Co. when he and Masrani's former CEO, Simon Masrani, finalized it with their names signed onto the official paperwork."
InGen Sniper's words hit Hank harder than any of Heavy's arsenal could. He had known that while Saxton had half-joked and has displayed some interest in building another weapon-based factory to create his own dinosaur-fighting theme park, he would never team up with InGen earlier at the time when it was its own corporation entity. To paraphrase Saxton's description of the bioengineering company, she was a slimy, messed up company who gets screwed over by her own creations in trying to exploit the money out of them. Something that clashed against Hale's own blunt, straightforward leadership.
So what had changed now to make Saxton reconsider his position on InGen and Masrani Global?
"But why?!" Hank yelled in disbelief, partly from that Saxton seemed to have compromised on his compass not to formalize an alliance with the corporation he was wary of for a long time, but also it seemed redundant when Mann Co. has more than enough resources to build their own dinosaur-themed park.
"Times have changed," InGen Sniper pushed up his shades, readjusting them from sliding off, "And it all started with Jurassic Park when Mr. Hammond realized his dream of bringing back long extinct animals from the grave through the miracle of genetic engineering and cloning. The Park was all, but ready to be opened to the public until Hurricane Clarissa threw a monkey wrench into that plan. The rest was history, but once Hammond opened Pandora's Box and had no idea what he had unleashed onto the world until it was too late, everything changed, mate. Not even potential de-extinction of the dinosaurs could stop it."
"Stop what?"
"Ah, crikey... have you seen what is trending on the business market nowadays?" Sniper asked. When he heard no answer from the Engineer, who kept glaring at him, he snorted in contempt, "Figures, you bloody hooligans are too busy fighting each other until all that exploding and bombing really turned your brains to ashes. Well, news flash for you! Dinosaur DNA and DNA of other prehistoric creatures is trending hotly on the market! There is nearly no person, company, or industry on planet Earth that wouldn't want to get their greedy hands on these things. Pharmaceuticals, pet stores, zoos, sports and entertainment, and virtually all departments of the government you can name from the top of your head. Especially the very one type of industry whose specialty is war and national defense."
Hank's face turned pale as he knew exactly what the InGen mercenary was referring to, considering that his own job was more than knee-deep into it.
"By Sam's Hill...the military industrial complex," Hank gulped.
InGen Sniper's distorted mouth grinned from ear to ear in a way so disturbingly creepy if one were to remove his bandana. In a manner that was beyond realistically possible even for a reptilian humanoid like him.
"Bingo!" Sniper said gleefully, "And Mann Co. was no exception. In fact, your company has been eyeing them for a long time. The only problem was legally getting access into that market, which apart from lucky finds in the black market, we were its sole gatekeepers. Your CEO, while he may be what most people would be right to think of him as, stupid is not one of them. Especially when it comes to having to trying to take advantage of a potential market boon. You see, while Mann Co. is relatively okay compared to others that have went off the razor's edge, it hasn't been doing great either when the Stock Market crashed in 2008, and since slowly stagnated."
"The mismanagement of the theme parks by the corporation's International Theme Park division is nothing to boast about. Heck, were you even aware that while your knucklehead of a CEO had basically given you the keys to this park after he bungled it up with his short-sighted calculations, Mammoth Park had to be closed and literally gutted off all of its assets right from the get-go when their first cloned baby mammoth died prior to opening day as to cut their financial losses right there and then to avoid another embarrassing PR black mark?! And taking into account the accumulated effect of all their mediocre online sales, abject horrific product recalls that have been nothing short of a bloody disaster, including all the succession drama going on, it's a miracle the company hasn't crumpled under its own weight, taking you guys out along with it!" The Sniper ranted, particularly about Mammoth Park, which he viewed it as the most abject abysmal waste of money and resources on what would have been a great project that ultimately amounted to nothing.
"Yet, me and my friends are still here kicking each other's asses for a living. What's your damned point?" Hank scrunched his eyebrows irritably.
"My point is that one of the reasons you blokes still have your jobs in Mann Co. because Saxton saw that it was losing money at an alarming rate when Masrani Global Co. was on a roll with Jurassic World turning into the critical financial and commercial success that put InGen right back on the map at the time. Your CEO wanted to stave off a potential bankruptcy and not risk losing his lucrative job to a prepubescent brat of Gray Mann, which was why he accepted the offer."
Hank was angrily reaching behind his work pants to grab his pistol, but his hand stopped short when Ralph growled in a more direct threatening manner with his mouth half open. He staggered backwards and wiped away the rancor stench from his face.
"Nuh-uh ah, bloke... I warned you it'd be unwise to make my partner angrier than he already is at you. Besides, I hate for our first day to go down with a tragedy just because a certain Engie decided to go take a piss deep in the jungle in the middle of the night only to be killed by a panther while caught with his pants down." Sniper chuckled with a morbid, twisted sense of humor, if it could even be called that.
"You really need to work on your humor," Hank said with his teeth clenched.
"And you're even more of a fool to follow out me here all alone. You're a bloody idiot to think that it's just me and Ralph."
As soon as the InGen Sniper said that last sentence, several orange and yellow pairs of illuminated eyes appeared out in the darkness of the jungle bush surrounding them all, followed by rustling of bushes with raucous, crow-like croaking. The Blue Engineer could guess that from the height of the eyes, that the creatures were about as tall as a man; possibly about six feet tall. He couldn't see their bodies and only their shadowy outline with subtle signs of lizard-like tails flicking about behind them. He could only guess that they had to be dinosaurs and the predatory look in their eyes all scream carnivore, possibly pack-hunters if the many pairs of eyes were any indication, which puts him in a worse position than he realized.
"Crap! I had been had!" Hank was so mentally clouded with much many conflicting thoughts running through his head that it failed to occur to him that he could be walking into a trap. And now, he wished he had brought up some backup with him and that's not even counting that he left his trusty tool box behind.
"Twiddly-tee-doo-dum... Look here, bumpkin, you could have been done a long time ago in a myriad of ways if I really wanted you dead," InGen Sniper said coolly with the bluish haze glow of his eyes becoming more apparent against his silhouetted outline thanks to the moon in the background behind him. It was now clear that they were clearly no optical illusion coming from the moonlight. "You better thank your lucky stars that you caught me in a rather good mood tonight, mate. Otherwise, it would have been lights out for you...permanently, and no one else would miss your sorry carcass."
"What in God's green earth are you really, Mr. InGen Mercenary? You're clearly not human to have these dinos basically licking at the palm of your hands. Nobody even knows what the hell they do back in their day," Hank questioned.
"That I cannot answer because that is classified information I can't divulge to anyone," InGen Sniper responded carefully as he put his hand on the machete sheathe, "You're going to have to pry out of my dead body if you are that desperate. Not that will happen when I butcher you faster than you can blink."
Hank kept his mouth shut, seeing that the InGen Sniper wouldn't have any qualms of killing him, here and now.
"With that said, I won't kill you. At least...not yet, as long as you don't give me a good reason to have you mauled or shot in the coming days."
"So, you're letting me go? Just like that?" Hank inquired cautiously as he was still wary of the Sniper as this being could destroy him with his back turned.
"If you think I will stab you in the back with my machetes, have Ralph or my raptors ambush you with your guard down, what will I gain other than having another dead weight and souring our corporation partnership?" Sniper answered, sounding callous and cocky, despite his tiredness. "After all, this is still a work in progress so there's still time to smoothen over our bumpy starts. In the meantime, we are going to revolutionize the way we will conduct modern warfare ten years down the road where we won't have to rely on outdated robots that could easily be hacked by a Sapper in the worse of unpredictable situations."
Hank whipped around with renewed rage barely tempered by his own tiredness with the jungle's humidity and the coolness of the night keeping him from blowing out at the humanoid creature that had indirectly insulted his precious toys, comparing them to be inferior to the prehistoric beasts.
"At least, my machines won't eat people even if they run out of juice. Not to mention that I can construct or repair them on the fly," Hank got right into the InGen Sniper's face, which earned low-pitched snarls and spine-chilling hisses from Ralph and the Velociraptors as they looked ready to maul him when he got too close to their 'Alpha'. The InGen Sniper clicked with his teeth and gestured with an open palm to order them not to attack Hank.
"True, but here's the other thing; machines can't react to unexpected changes outside their programming is capable of handling. They can break easily. And your enemy can easily turn them against you." Sniper countered, "You, of all people, know this to be true."
The masked Sniper then pointed to the theropods surrounding the Blue Engineer as he continued,
"They, on the other hand... their loyalty is not something that can just be hacked or mainpulated on a whim, it has to be hard earned. My dinosaurs will follow no one other than me, even if I were to be incapacitated because of the strong bonds I have cultivated with them over the decades. They have senses more complex than any artificial intelligence to be able to differentiate between friend and foe. Something no sentry or any dumb robot could be capable of, outside of someone programming its software program. On the same token, their senses and animal cunning have faster reactions and can learn, adapt, and make decisions, as simple as they might be to you humans, on the fly in fast-paced dynamic situations where one wrong move in that few critical seconds could mean life and death, instead of having to wait for someone to quickly type a command code into their heads. And they can heal fast thanks to their supercharged immune system that can operate nanoseconds faster than the most advanced firewall systems."
"You're really are an arrogant SOB to think that dinosaurs would be gods on the battlefield," Hank snarled as his contempt for the Sniper grew deeper the more he heard the condescending words coming from that despicable face. "It's almost as if you're a king among them."
"Kettle calling the pot black with you not so different from me when it comes to your sentries."
"At least I have evidence to back up that they will destroy your dinos in a heavy firefight."
"But are you willing to embrace your inner beast when shit hits the fan? When all the chips are down as every sentry and invention you ever built breaks down? When my dinosaurs corner you with no one to save you; just you and your wrench and shotgun?"
Hank spat the reptiloid right in his masked face with his spit messing his shades.
"That ain't going to happen. Not in a few million years as long as I have my friends to back me up and kick your ugly smug off of ya," Hank had his voice sounding his increasing disdain for the condescending Sniper, who didn't even seem to flinch from being spat on. The irritated Engineer turned around to leave, not wanting to put up with the condescending prick, only to come face to face with one of the Velociraptors, who was an alpha female with the color palette of white scales with small speckled black spots and striated black markings on her tail that were typical of other female Velociraptors. She bore some bite scars on her upper snout and claw gashes on her back. Her golden eyes glowed threateningly with her lips curling, revealing her sharp knife-like teeth as she growled. Next within a snap of a second, she opened her maw, screeching so terrifingly right in front of him that he nearly got blinded by her hot, bloody breath and thought his brain exploded via eardrums being abused by the high-pitched shrill.
"Back off! I'm going to lay you out!" Engineer reacted instinctively in an aggressive manner by quickly grabbing out his wrench from his pocket. His head pounded with a miniature migraine that he couldn't think straight clearly.
He swung his tool at her head, which the female Velociraptor reared her head back and avoided being whacked. That was a near-fatal mistake for him because in the next moment he heard the angry crowing roar from the alpha male raptor, not only he had the wind knocked out of him but he was also pinned to the ground by that said raptor. The beast was naturally larger than the alpha female with several key characteristics other males possess:
Red-colored crests on top of his snout, blue skin around his orange eyes, quills on top of his head, dark violet-brownish scales, dark bluish stripes around his arms, legs, and thighs, and a white stripe across from behind his eyes to the base of the tail.
What made this individual stand out was his numerous battle scars that he earned from fighting off other raptors that tried to usurp him. The base of his tail really had bad bite scars when a rebellious female tried to bite him from behind. His left hand was notably missing a third finger as it was bitten off by another alpha male hailing from a different tribe. Regardless, it didn't make him any less dangerous than he was before. Actually, it just made him all the more so aggressive and vicious in mauling his prey.
The alpha male had him stuck to the floor, making it agonizing torture with his foot talons puncturing through fabric and superficial layer of flesh. The infamous sickle-clawed toe tapped on his chest with the Alpha male Velociraptor screeching above him with his bird-like cry deeper in tone than his mate. Speaking of which, the alpha female crept up to the downed Engineer and lowered her head down just a few inches on top of his face. She opened her toothy jaws revealing her fangs and the putrid breath of death coming from her.
"Oh shit…," Engineer swore through his teeth as he began to shut his eyes behind his googles for what looked like the inevitable for him.
InGen Sniper gave a subtle deeper click from his masked mouth. Ralph stomped forward and let out a loud roar, making the alpha Velociraptor pair back off from the Engineer, but they did do so not without showing their displeasure as they emitted very pissed off snarls with their lips curled and their fangs glinting. All of the other members of the raptor pack joined in showing off their collective ire towards the Saber-Toothed Tyrannsoaurus, who doubled down on his warning threat, standing his own ground. Hank sweated bullets as he was underneath Ralph's shadow, trapped in between the T. rex's massive feet and was doing his best to not panic in the midst of the brewing confrontation between the two different theropod species.
Seeing as the Raptors would not heed Ralph, InGen Sniper quickly pulled out his pistol, which he normally used it as a last resort when things about to get too ugly, and shot the gun up into the canopy. The shot, because it was in a more enclosed space, sounded greatly louder and had more impact in stopping the beasts and shutting them up. The whole jungle went silent.
"Alright, ya all! Enough is enough!" Sniper declared before he turned to Ralph as he lowered his shades with his glowing reptilian eyes revealed much to Hank's astonishment, "Ralph, I'll handle them. You've done your job; just be mindful of the Blue Engineer beneath you."
Ralph reluctantly grunted in acknowledgement as he walked backwards deliberately, not wanting to get into a fight with his partner and master by accidentally crushing a flabbergasted Hank under his shadow.
The Sniper then looked to the Velociraptors with his own menacing glare with the Alphas immediately barking at him, not thrilled that he interrupted their easy midnight snack. The Alpha male snapped his jaws while crowing angrily at him with his quills and tail pointed up. Sniper responded back with his own crowing sound of dominance that sounded perfectly bestial despite having his bandana on. The male Velociraptor was anything, but easily submissive as he stubbornly growled back as so did the other pack members. However, surprisingly it was the Alpha Female Raptor that let out her crowing call telling the others to stand down. The Alpha Male squawked out his confusion before the Alpha female crowed at him assertively to basically not start a fight with their humanoid master. The two stared at one another for a few minutes. To the Engineer, it seemed like hours before the Alpha male finally conceded to his mate with the Velociraptor lowering his tail and his feathery quills on his head and neck no longer erect. The female turned around to face Sniper and purred at him somewhat submissively like her mate and others of the pack.
"That's right, Ashley," he addressed the alpha female, "Rough him up, I'm okay with. Just don't kill him..."
He then turned eyed Hank at the corner of his slit eye creepily, "...yet. You will have the opportunity should he decide to wage war against me."
The Velociraptors squealed, cawing gleefully at other chances for more victims to feast on. Ralph was no different with his purring growl having a predatory enthusiasm behind his already toothy grin reinforcing Hank's terrible suspicions that though he might be saved, the troubles for him and his friends were just beginning.
Sniper put back on his shades covering his glowing eyes and readjusted his hood.
"I think we're done here," he said. His shot alerted InGen's mercenaries, so he wanted to go back to the camp and reassure them that it wasn't anything serious that occurred on in the jungle. "Ashley, Seth, Ralph...time to move on from this waterhole."
Ralph was the first to move ahead with his large size making long strides that enable him to disappear deeper into the jungle as his thundering foot stomps signal his presence less and less the further he went.
Hank pushed himself off the ground, partially crouched with one knee on the ground. He covered his chest with his gloved hand. The wounds, though superficial, were still sharply painful with blood staining his glove. He breathed hard to regain whatever wind he had lost when the Alpha Male Raptor, Seth, jumped, punching him hard in the stomach with his headbutt.
"*cough* *cough* Monsters...," Hank wheezed. InGen Sniper crouched in front of him.
"We're all monsters here, mate," he said.
"Enough of your psycho bullshit," Hank was in no mood with his mind still reeling from having the wind knocked out of him.
"The law of the jungle is war, mate. Everyday struggling to survive is a battlefield. You either adapt and evolve into a stronger monster, or get left behind and die."
Hank, still very pissed off, launched a haymaker at him. Sniper just casually catched it with his partially scaly hand, which was now covered in a dark fingerless glove. He gripped hard with enough pressure to make it hurt, but not to crush it outright.
Hank grunted as he felt his bone and muscle being painfully squeezed.
"What kind of shit are you spewing out?!" he yelled angrilly.
"You don't get it do you?" the Sniper then nabbed him by the wrist and with one forceful yank, threw him hard into the base of a tree trunk. He threw with such powerful strength that Hank would have suffered a concussion to the back of his skull if it weren't for his construction helmet. Even then, it still resulted in having Hank's back bruised badly.
"It's about to arrive on your doorstep and you're still stuck in basically the era of the Cold War that is long gone. Look around you, mate. A new revived Jurassic Era is about to dawn on mankind. It won't be long before progress will have the dinosaurs dominating over machines. And you can't stop it once the genie's out of the bottle."
Sniper turned around to leave a badly injured Hank writhing on the forest floor. The Velociraptor pack began to trek deeper into the jungle. Hank weakly groaned with his words coming out strained from the aching pain,
"Like how it will end up just like what happened the last time InGen overplayed their hand with Jurassic World?" Hank then chuckled rather humorlessly, "Maybe you should have taken that rock-star doctor's words to heart regarding InGen's vision of progress."
InGen Sniper stopped just before entering the underbrush for a minute or so before he coldly replied with a crossed hiss,
"The new era will happen...with or without you. And I am its harbinger."
After that, he disappeared into the darkness of the jungle along with the Velociraptors. Hank reached out his hand as if to yank him, but his vision blacked out with his body rendered inert from exhaustion and his injuries.
Somewhere on the other side of the vast river, the second Red Demoman, who was part of the failed reinforcements that met their gruesome fate as croc bait, somehow managed to survive from suffering the same fate. He also rescued the third Red Scout from being eaten by the younger Salties. That said Scout was lying unconscious from him; apart from getting his torso bitten if the bandages were any indicative, he was fine for most part. The kid will live, but the memory will scar him for the rest of his life.
Demoman, for his part, had seen and been through a lot of hell in the past. The emergence of a prehistoric monster revived from its earthly grave through means unknown to him was clearly something else. He really needed a drink of whiskey. The Irish mercenary popped open the cap to his whiskey bottle, but as he was about to chug it down, he heard InGen helicopters flying above the canopy. He looked up to see them flying towards the facility.
Above on the precipice overlooking Mercenary Park now repurposed into an actual functional, genetic creation military facility, the huge signs that once spelled the said name were now taken down. A new billboard sign was being constructed and near to completion with a power generator installed nearby to power it up.
Although the billboard sign's neon lights were yet to be lit up, one could make out the words...
"Jurassic Park Australia"
